Omar Khayyám: "Yesterday This Day's Madness did prepare...."

"Yesterday This Day's Madness did prepare;
To-morrow's Silence, Triumph, or Despair:
Drink! for you know not whence you came, nor why:
Drink! for you know not why you go, nor where."

Source: Omar Khayyám [ عمر خیام Persian] (18 May 1048 – 4 December 1131) was a Persian mathematician, astronomer, and writer; originally named Ghiyath al-Din Abu'l-Fath Omar ibn Ibrahim Al-Nisaburi Khayyámi (غیاث الدین ابو الفتح عمر بن ابراهیم خیام نیشابوری) Edward FitzGerald's translations of his poetic Rubaiyat (Quatrains) were immensely popular, and remain influential.

The Bloggess - Book Signing Event

Dawn and I attended a book signing event, at the Bookshop Santa Cruz, for The Bloggess, on Friday, December 4, 2015.

You may have to embiggen, but we do exist, in the top photo of this montage...partially obscured by masks...several rows back

Here we are, in line

Animation - Miyazaki Hayao Complete Box/Works (13BDS) [Japan BD] VWBS-1531

Saw Subject mentioned, today, on Angry Asian Man.

Web site CDJapan lists Crown Tokuma, as the Japanese distributor, while Walt Disney Studios seems to represent the North American distributor, in partnership with Amazon. Amazon seems to list a November 17, 2015 North American release date.

Have read through some commentary, on differences between the Japan and North America versions, as well as comments on the North American release itself. In general, comments seem positive.

Leaving this here, as a page to note details, as I read more.

Differences

• Languages

Notes

• Individual film notes, from the 2015 North American release:
1. Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979) 
2. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) 
3. Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986) 
4. My Neighbor Totoro (1988) 
5. Kiki's Delivery Service (1989)
• This collection seems to include Disney's 2010 reissue
• Wikipedia lists the differences between the versions
• An Amazon comment summarizes: "Disney reissued the dub in 2010 without the extra dialogue (notably Jiji's one-liners) and jettisoned the Sydney Forest opening and ending songs for the Japanese ones. Why? Because purists absolutely DETESTED them. They DETESTED them with a vengeance, so Disney bowed to their whims and fixed them. But yes, it came with a price; it's impossible for me to listen to the 2010 DVD update because of the bad sound quality. The original cut of KIKI had crisper audio. Unfortunately because this edit is more accurate to the Japanese presentation, it was decided to include this on the BD release instead. I would have preferred if Disney issued the movie with BOTH versions of the dub, so as to allow people a chance to choose."
6. Porco Rosso (1992) 
7. Princess Mononoke (1997) 
8. Spirited Away (2001) 
9. Howl's Moving Castle (2004) 
10. Ponyo (2008) 
11. The Wind Rises (2013)
• Special features:
• Misses special features from individual releases
• Includes:
• Dubtitles:
• Dubtitle issues have been fixed

Stikkmenn

http://stikkmenn.no/

What's with everyone in Santa Cruz having these amazing vehicles to travel in? Saw a Stikkmenn camper, in the parking lot, at Trader Joe's, a couple of weekends ago.

I Want to Believe: Deercow

The University of California, Santa Cruz "deercow" legend...I want to believe. I also want a poster like the one above, from The X-Files, but with a deercow. I also want to know what a deercow looks like, because I don't know what a deercow looks like. It's a deer and a cow, obviously. In what proportion, though?

I believe the book, "An Unnatural History of UCSC", ISBN 2800840059880, quotes a woman who relates the anecdote of how she coined the term, while walking, at night, through the campus fields and redwoods. I can't find much reference to it, otherwise, other than the book listings and one obscure page. 

Deercow. I want to believe.

Panchosway2015: Simone Rupp & Stefan Leicht

Saw this vehicle, in Santa Cruz, this past weekend:

http://www.panchosway2015.de/

Will Model 4 Toyz

Saw a sticker:
http://www.willmodel4toyz.com/

I called the Nintendo Hotline, in 1987

Really enjoyed reading the Onion Inc.'s A.V. Club's article, "What was it like to be a Nintendo game play counselor?", by Annie Zaleski, published on 2015-11-21:

http://www.avclub.com/article/what-was-it-be-nintendo-game-play-counselor-224289

The article mentions Shadowgate, a 1987 point-and-click adventure video game developed by ICOM Simulations, Inc. and published by Kemco, for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

The name sounds familiar, and after looking it up, I remembered why: it represents the one game I called the Nintendo Powerline about. In the game, you eventually have to kill a werewolf. My 10-year-old self didn't know silver represents a weapon to use against werewolves. Well, to the Nintendo Powerline I went, after many, many hours of frustration. A man answered. In response to my explanation, he began leisurely hinting at the answer. Not knowing the key insight, I just got frustrated, because, at that time, long distance calls cost a non-trivial amount, per minute. A per-minute surcharge may have also existed. Zaleski's article describes this:

CF: The funny thing was, we were originally told to just counsel them into the answer, and help them feel like they’ve figured it out themselves. Give them some hints, or kind of coach them along. But people sometimes would lose their patience completely with that, and want the answer immediately. Which didn’t always end well on the phones.

He finally told me, and I thanked him, and that was that. It went fine, no angry words, just frustration, which I think he sensed. I learned something, succeeded in getting past the room, and eventually completed the game. Ta-da. Looking back, I can appreciate and understand the point of their approach, with giving hints.

An ex-werewolf (via)

So, it provided a very useful service, in the pre-Internet era, and I am grateful for the service.

The other game I called about, to the Origin game help hotline, was an RPG PC game, I think, near the end game, which may have glitched out? Again, very helpful.

UPDATE: It was Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds, a 1993 first-person role-playing video game developed by Looking Glass Technologies and published by Origin Systems. Near the endgame, I would use the colorless potion of Basilisk oil, but nothing proc'd. The person I called got me through it, but I am not sure what the issue was. I think I was attempting to use the basilisk oil potion, at the place of the ritual in the Void, when I needed to use it instead of on mud in the ice caverns, and so forth, and so forth.

Basilisk oil, when only colorless will do (via)

The article mentions the game Legacy of the Wizard, a 1989 fantasy-themed action role-playing platform game, developed by Nihon Falcom and published, for the NES, by Brøderbund. The article mentions the game gave the Nintendo game counselors a bad time:

CF: ...My first day on the phone was just terrifying—just call after call after call. I had no idea what these people were talking about. They were playing The Goonies II, which was one of the most dreaded calls you could possibly get—that and Legacy Of The Wizard. [Bloom and Lowder groan.] 

SB: As soon as someone called me and said, “Legacy Of The Wizard,” I was just like, “There goes my day.” 

AVC: What was wrong with that game? 

SB: We had maps of it, like screenshot maps, and we could see the whole entire game. It was basically a side shot. But how many rooms were in that? Like 100 rooms? 

CF: They all kind of looked the same. “Yeah, I’m in a room with gray bricks.” [Laughs.] You’re like, “Kill me. Kill me now.” So I made a horrible impression my first day. All the veteran game play counselors wanted to kill me. They kept getting transfers from extension 782—why I remember [my extension number], I have no idea. That was a rough first time on the phones....

That game I got through, on my own. That is, probably with the help of Nintendo Power magazine? Heh. ; o )

Good times.

Dash cam: Koonlung K1S Dual Channel Dash Cam

In early 2015, Chinese manufacturer Koonlung began selling dual camera dash cam model KS1, which has two mini cameras and separate control display and GPS modules:

http://www.techmoan.com/blog/2015/3/1/k1s-the-first-front-rear-hidden-1080p-dash-camera.html

Currently priced at ~$275, with GPS, from Spy Tec. Initial reviews seem to indicate possible overheating and reboot/freeze issues.

The last time I checked, in October, 2014, the Vico Marcus 5 seemed like the only model available which worked well. However, while the Marcus 5 has a mini rear camera, the front camera included the display module, making it look bulky. Plus, it cost nearly $400.

Looking forward to more competition, in this category.

LINKS

Previously, Previously, Previously
http://www.koonlung.com/

http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-dash-cam/

http://www.koonlung.com/productview_33.html (note: Kooklung KS1 product page)

MetaRatr

Listening to random music on SoundCloud, via MetaRatr.

Some I like:
fernandosinesio - 5 - Braseiro

Superstititous
Kash Unlimited Music - Pusha T - King Push

Self-deceit: Redding's "A Short Lesson in Perspective"

Read the whole thing:
http://www.lindsredding.com/2012/03/11/a-overdue-lesson-in-perspective/

Shepard Fairey Artwork: Debbie Harry (Blondie)

Saw this art, in the background, as part of a photo of Maria Popova, from the About page of her blog, Brain Pickings:

Great photo

The original artwork represents a 18 x 24″ handmade canvas silk screen print, from May 2010 by Shepard Fairey, depicting Blondie band member Debbie Harry. Photo by Bobby Grossman.

RESOURCES

http://www.obeygiant.com/prints/debby-harry-canvas-print

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepard_Fairey

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blondie_(band)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debbie_Harry

Ben Franklin, On Liberty and Safety: Source and Context

WikiQuote lists 11 variations of Benjamin Franklin's quote. Today I found the original wording (attributed to Franklin):

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

SUMMARY - ORIGINAL INTENT

"Liberty", in this case, refers to the question of whether the 1755 Pennsylvania Assembly, which included Benjamin Franklin, had the authority to tax lands owned by the Penn family, the legal landowners of the Province of Pennsylvania, per the charter granted by English king Charles II.

"Safety", in this case, refers to frontier defense against attacks during the French and Indian War, which had started the previous year, in 1754.

In brief, the Pennsylvania Assembly members seemed to have two choices:

1. Choose Safety over Liberty: the Assembly could immediately create a tax to raise funds for frontier defense, with the condition that they could not tax the Penn family's lands
2. Choose Liberty over Safety: by re-asserting the Assembly's right to tax lands owned by the Penn family, an administrative delay might occur in getting authorization to create a tax to raise funds, for frontier defense

From below:

"Franklin was thus complaining of the choice facing the legislature between being able to make funds available for frontier defense and maintaining its right of self-governance--and he was criticizing the governor for suggesting it should be willing to give up the latter to ensure the former."

SOURCE

From WikiQuote: "This was first written by Franklin for the Pennsylvania Assembly in its Reply to the Governor (11 Nov. 1755)", which, in part, reads:

"In fine, we have the most sensible Concern for the poor distressed Inhabitants of the Frontiers. We have taken every Step in our Power, consistent with the just Rights of the Freemen of Pennsylvania, for their Relief, and we have Reason to believe, that in the Midst of their Distresses they themselves do not wish us to go farther. Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. Such as were inclined to defend themselves, but unable to purchase Arms and Ammunition, have, as we are informed, been supplied with both, as far as Arms could be procured, out of Monies given by the last Assembly for the King’s Use; and the large Supply of Money offered by this Bill, might enable the Governor to do every Thing else that should be judged necessary for their farther Security, if he shall think fit to accept it. Whether he could, as he supposes, “if his Hands had been properly strengthened, have put the Province into such a Posture of Defence, as might have prevented the present Mischiefs,” seems to us uncertain; since late Experience in our neighbouring Colony of Virginia (which had every Advantage for that Purpose that could be desired) shows clearly, that it is next to impossible to guard effectually an extended Frontier, settled by scattered single Families at two or three Miles Distance, so as to secure them from the insiduous Attacks of small Parties of skulking Murderers: But thus much is certain, that by refusing our Bills from Time to Time, by which great Sums were seasonably offered, he has rejected all the Strength that Money could afford him; and if his Hands are still weak or unable, he ought only to blame himself, or those who have tied them."

ADDITIONAL CONTEXT

In pre-American Revolution 1755, at the time of first use, Franklin and company, as members of the Pennsylvania Assembly, found themselves in an ongoing dispute with the Pennsylvania Colonial Deputy Governor, Robert Hunter Morris, who served at the pleasure of members of the Penn family, who lived abroad, in England.

The Penn family was led by Thomas Penn, the son of William Penn. William Penn had founded the Province of Pennsylvania, in 1681, initially owning all 120,000 square kilometers, via king Charles II of England, who granted the charter transferring the lands to Penn, in part to satisfy a debt owed by Charles II to William Penn's father, the sea admiral Sir William Penn.

Thomas, unlike his father, ruled from afar, in aristocratic fashion, perhaps in an attempt to salvage the family's finances, as his father had died penniless.

The dispute centered around the determination of whether a proposed tax, created by the Pennsylvania Assembly, for "Safety" (that is, frontier defense), could tax the lands owned by the Penn family, or not. 

Franklin and company argued the Pennsylvania Assembly had the "Liberty" to tax the Penn family lands. The Pennsylvania Colonial Governor, who served at the pleasure of the Penn family, disagreed. No surprise, there.

The quotation arises in a letter Franklin and company have written to the Governor. They seem fired up. It seems the Governor has given them two options:

1. Immediately obtain the Pennsylvania Governor's permission to create a tax, for "Safety" (that is, frontier defense), by accepting the Governor's poison-pill condition: the loss of the Assembly's "Liberty" to tax the Penn family's lands
2. Assert the Assembly's "Liberty" to tax the Penn family's lands, via joint letter to the Governor, at the risk of delays in raising funds for "Safety" (again, frontier defense)

By writing the letter, the Pennsylvania Assembly members chose the latter option, using Franklin's quote, for emphasis. 

A TechCrunch ariticle, from February 14, 2014, provides context, in part, via a July 15, 2011 article, from the Brookings Institute’s Benjamin Wittes' blog Lawfare:

“The letter was a salvo in a power struggle between the governor and the assembly over funding for security on the frontier, one in which the assembly wished to tax the lands of the Penn family." 

From Wittes article:

"The words appear originally in a 1755 letter that Franklin is presumed to have written on behalf of the Pennsylvania Assembly to the colonial governor during the French and Indian War. The letter was a salvo in a power struggle between the governor and the Assembly over funding for security on the frontier, one in which the Assembly wished to tax the lands of the Penn family, which ruled Pennsylvania from afar, to raise money for defense against French and Indian attacks. The governor kept vetoing the Assembly’s efforts at the behest of the family, which had appointed him. So to start matters, Franklin was writing not as a subject being asked to cede his liberty to government, but in his capacity as a legislator being asked to renounce his power to tax lands notionally under his jurisdiction. In other words, the “essential liberty” to which Franklin referred was thus not what we would think of today as civil liberties but, rather, the right of self-governance of a legislature in the interests of collective security.

What's more the “purchase [of] a little temporary safety” of which Franklin complains was not the ceding of power to a government Leviathan in exchange for some promise of protection from external threat; for in Franklin’s letter, the word “purchase” does not appear to have been a metaphor. The governor was accusing the Assembly of stalling on appropriating money for frontier defense by insisting on including the Penn lands in its taxes--and thus triggering his intervention. And the Penn family later offered cash to fund defense of the frontier--as long as the Assembly would acknowledge that it lacked the power to tax the family’s lands. Franklin was thus complaining of the choice facing the legislature between being able to make funds available for frontier defense and maintaining its right of self-governance--and he was criticizing the governor for suggesting it should be willing to give up the latter to ensure the former.

In short, Franklin was not describing some tension between government power and individual liberty. He was describing, rather, effective self-government in the service of security as the very liberty it would be contemptible to trade. Notwithstanding the way the quotation has come down to us, Franklin saw the liberty and security interests of Pennsylvanians as aligned."

In the short-to-medium term, the Pennsylvania Assembly's effort failed, in two ways:

1. The Pennsylvania deputy governor ultimately refused, stating the terms of his commission did not grant him the authority to tax the lands owned by the Penn family
2. Franklin's subsequent effort, in 1757, to bypass the Pennsylvania governor, via travel to England and direct appeal to the English government, also failed, for lack of support in Whitehall

In the long term, after the American Revolution, Franklin lived to see the Penn family lose all their lands. Thomas Penn had died several years earlier, in 1771.

PRIOR USAGE

As noted, on WikiQuote, Franklin seems to have published an earlier variation, in Poor Richard's Almanack (1738):

"Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power."

ADDITIONAL NOTES

I should note the ongoing discussion about whether contemporary usage of this quote reflects what Benjamin Franklin meant to imply, seems a topic of muddy value. Is it a quote limited to governmental taxation (liberty) and defense (safety)? Or, in more contemporary usage, does it refer to learned helplessness, by which citizens give away civil liberties to the Leviathan government, which promises to protect them? 

Benjamin Franklin was a revolutionary. He overthrew governments and led a non-conformist life. The quote, as a part of him, seems quite of the same cloth. 

He was also human, just like you and me. His usage in the 1755 letter reflected a spin on a phrase he had most likely long used. In my opinion, it reflected a means to an end.

In the big picture, the tension and trade-offs between anarchy and ossification represents a common theme stretching across thousands of years of human organization (hat tip, Bertrand Russell). Think: Renaissance Italy and European dark ages, respectively.

RESOURCES

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colonial_governors_of_Pennsylvania
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin#Quotes
http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/framedVolumes.jsp?vol=6&page=238a
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hunter_Morris
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_and_Indian_War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Penn_(Royal_Navy_officer)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Penn
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Penn
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2011/9/21%20platform%20security%20wittes/0921_platform_security_wittes.pdf
http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/14/how-the-world-butchered-benjamin-franklins-quote-on-liberty-vs-security/

Prius High-Intensity Discharge Headlamp (HID) Bulb Replacement

Replaced both headlamp bulbs yesterday, on November 12, 2015.

NOTES

• Driver's side seemed harder, for me, due to the fuse box, which limited space more than the passenger's side, I think
• Driver's side clip's shape seemed distorted, a bit, so I had difficulty replacing it. I eventually did the best I could and tested it for snugness--it was snug, so replaced the cap and called it a day...note: did not have this problem on the passenger's side
• Dealership "Toyota & Scion of Santa Cruz" quoted me $200+ to do the job, just for labor
• Used new, disposable latex gloves while installing the bulb, and Mechanix gloves otherwise...protected my hands nicely from random scrapes and scratches, and gave better grip
• Night before, I wiped the bulbs with rubbing alcohol (that is, 70% isopropyl alcohol); dried overnight
• New headlamp bulbs glow, in a blueish white color
• Aligning the bulb: hold it in place with one hand, then step back and look through the front of the headlamp...you will see the bulb poking through and get another indication of whether you have aligned it properly
• The electrode, the part which looks like a metal bar and runs along one side of the bulb glass, should face down (?)
• I think the knobs, on the bulb back should align horizontally (?)
• Time elapsed: 45-60 minutes
• Do it again? Yes

RESOURCES

• Driver's and passenger's side bulb replacement (shows: plastic tab removal; mirrored view of bulb clips, and so forth): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6Ih1CPQUzM
• Removing the entire headlamp assembly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zG2BPEK0dQ
• Driver's side bulb replacement, only (gave me the idea of using the screwdriver, for torque): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er0oEHNUfQs
• San Francisco's Luscious Garage YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/lusciousgarage/videos
• Bulb source: 
• HighPerformanceBulbs.com
• Product: "High Performance Xenon D2R HID replacement bulbs (2 bulbs) (Choose Your Color) Part # D2RHID"
• HID Bulb Color : 4300K OEM White
• Parts cost (two bulbs), with shipping and handling: $52.74
• Warranty: 1 year for defects or failure
• Estimated HID Bulb Life: 3000 Hours
• Recommended, via PriusChat
• Previously

A Suitable Wardrobe

Link: https://asuitablewardrobe.com

Have read his blog for a number of years. Too expensive for my tastes, generally, at this time. Well versed, though.

Matcha Yogurt

Saw a delivery truck for Los Angeles-based 北京酸奶 (Beijing Yogurt) while driving near San Jose, on I-880/Highway 17 area, on Monday.

They sell Matcha Yogurt, which seemed noteworthy.

https://www.facebook.com/BeijingYogurt/
http://www.bjyogurt.com/

T-Swizzle, K-Shizzle

Reading an Esquire magazine while waiting at my barber, and read that Taylor Swift occassionally refers to herself as T-Swizzle.

K-Shizzle?

None Too Keene: Nancy Drew Noir

Performance art of Nancy Drew, in a more hardboiled style:

"She knew. About the coded phrases served up at social teas. About the untidy passions externalized in a broken locket. About what goes down on a hidden staircase. With one hundred and seventy five mysteries solved by age eighteen, Nancy Drew had seen more than Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade, and Mike Hammer combined. And she'd seen enough. On graduating high school, she quit sleuthing, and took to writing her memoirs. "For profit," she once told an inquiring librarian. "And no other fool reason." When the manuscript for The Secret of the Old Clock hit Grosset & Dunlap's desks in 1930, they knew they had gold, but they balked. "On prose like that," said friend James M. Cain, "You could've cracked a shotglass". Enter "Carolyn Keene," a collective pseudonym for a group of editors who cake decorated Drew's language with enough twee adverbs to choke a Girl Scout. It worked. The books sold 80 million copies, a new role model emerged, and Nancy Drew laughed all the way to the bank.

In the process, American literature got swindled.

To help restore this lost voice of hard-boiled crime writing, we called on the best: noir preservationist Eddie Muller, author of Dark City; The Distance; and Grindhouse, and founder of The Film Noir Foundation, and San Francisco's Noir City Film Festival. In celebration of this literary justice, we are presenting an evening of selections from Ms. Drew's first original manuscript, read by streetwise gamine of local theater, Lydia Odette Warren. Muller will be on hand to provide context and commentary, and piano-bar veteran Richard Leiter "

: o )

(via)

SAMFOX

SAMFOX represents an acronym (emphasis added):

"The base is also tasked, under what is known as "SAM FOX", to provide worldwide airlift for the vice president, the president's Cabinet, members of Congress, military leaders and other high ranking dignitaries. At one time, "SAM FOX", was used as a prefix to an aircraft tail number, during radio transmissions to identify Air Force aircraft that were transporting high-ranking VIPs, typically on foreign flights. The call sign prefix was constructed from the acronym SAM (Special Air Mission) and the initial F (Foreign), which at the time was represented by the phonetic word "Fox.""

Today, it represents "...a term that represents the ultimate in professional dedication."
(via, via)

Prius Replacement Headlamp

Tips:

• Replace in pairs (light changes, over time)
• D2R
• Sources:
• Highperformancebulbs.com (via)
• "Buy a Phillips or Osram labeled bulb that is 4100k or 4300k D2R ... and you will be set." (via)

Went with: "High Performance Xenon D2R HID replacement bulbs (2 bulbs) (Choose Your Color) Part # D2RHID", per recommendation and one year warranty. (link)